Hartford-based Aetna Inc., a CVS Health company, had a post-holiday gift for several major drug manufacturers, filing a lawsuit on Dec. 30 accusing them of engaging in a conspiracy to fix prices for more than 100 generic medications.
The 469-page lawsuit, filed in Hartford Superior Court, also claims the companies conspired to monopolize the market and restrain trade.
The lawsuit names 19 pharmaceutical companies and two subsidiaries as plaintiffs, including Novartis AG, Pfizer Inc. and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. It also lists more than 30 companies as co-conspirators that were not cited as defendants.
According to the lawsuit, the co-conspirators included “persons, firms, entities, and corporations” who have participated “in the violations alleged herein and have aided, abetted, and performed acts and made statements in furtherance of the conspiracy.”
Aetna claims in the lawsuit that the conspiracy artificially inflated the prices of 111 generic drugs, including the pain medication Gabapentin, as well as Amoxicillin and penicillin.
“Plaintiff brings this action to recover damages it incurred from egregious overcharges it paid for certain widely used generic drugs, arising from a far-reaching conspiracy among Defendants and others to blatantly fix the price of such drugs,” the lawsuit states. “This conspiracy increased the
Defendants’ profits, and that of others working with them, at the expense of Plaintiff, a private health benefit provider, as well as consumers and the government.”
The lawsuit states that generic drugs typically reduce prices for medications when they enter the market, but that the defendants “conspired to manipulate the relevant markets, allocate these markets amongst themselves, and obstruct generic competition in an ongoing scheme to fix, increase, stabilize, and/or maintain the price of generic drugs.”
The suit claims they drugmakers and others did this, beginning in 2012 by meeting or speaking privately. It also accuses the companies of destroying evidence of those talks.
Aetna is seeking treble damages, as well as injunctive, equitable and declaratory relief.
Spokespersons for Novartis, Pfizer and Teva did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
